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Summer Fancy Food Show: From ‘Fancy’ to Mainstream

Attendees eye sales beyond specialty channel

July 1, 2014, 04:08 pm
By Bridget Goldschmidt, EnsembleIQ

Biena Foods' chickpea snacks are meant to appeal to nut and chip snackers.

As I walked the aisles of the Summer Fancy Food Show at New York's Jacob Javits Center, admiring the many innovative products on display, I couldn't help wondering what the various exhibitors' intentions were toward the conventional grocery channel. It's all very well to have a best-selling product at a small specialty grocery, or even at Whole Foods Market, but most consumers don't do the majority of their shopping at such places.

For that reason, Petaluma, Calif.-based Laloo's Goat's Milk Ice Cream -- the only such product in national distribution, according to Tim Millson, of The Epic Source Food Co., in Frisco, Texas, as he plied me with a sample of the product line's Vanilla Snowflake variety –- is coming out this October with a more accessible item specifically for mainstream grocers' freezers. Dubbed Funny Farm, the kid-friendly low-fat product line offers portion control in form of 3-ounce cups that can be bought separately, at $1.39 a pop, or in a 4-pack for $4.99. Thanks to the folksy presentation and less expensive price point, the company is seeing "huge interest" among mainstream operators, Millson noted.

Over at the Two Moms in the Raw booth, one of the moms, Marsha Koolik, talked about how the Lafayette, Colo.-based company's "super clean" raw-food products -- created after Koolik's daughter, Shari, developed multiple sclerosis, as a way to address her dietary needs –- have attracted notice from the mainstream likes of Safeway, Raley's and King Soopers. In fact, as Two Moms VP of Sales Amanda Goers told me, raw food is the fastest-growing category in all channels, at anywhere from 35 percent to 50 percent –- a clear indication that it's definitely worth conventional grocers' time to look into such products. Much of this growth comes from adults interested in boosting their health, but many consumers are looking for wholesome products for their children. "Kids love it!" Goers said of Two Moms' lineup, which includes granola and nut bars, noting that the company makes sure its products taste great and live up to strict nutritional standards.

Boston-based Biena Foods, maker of a line of dry-roasted chickpea snacks that, according to founder and CEO Poorvi Patodia, are airier and lighter than competing products, has made an effort to develop flavors that resonate with mainstream consumers used to snacking on nuts and chips. To that end, Biena offers Honey Roasted and Barbecue varieties targeting these snackers, with a resulting "tremendous" response from more mainstream channels, including Barnes & Noble College stores on university campuses across the country. The company is also working on additional flavors in a similar vein.

At Barrington, Ill.-based Sulpice Chocolat, "gourmet" would seem to be the watchword, with its hand-painted (think Jackson Pollack-like splatter at its most delicate) truffle-quality offerings. But even this high-end chocolatier is wooing the mainstream channel via a line of affordable flavored bars, including a mouthwatering White Chocolate variety, due to hit Jewel-Osco's shelves in September, and other conventional grocers thereafter. Anne Shaeffer, the onetime pastry chef now at Sulpice's helm, noted that the bars are a mere $3.69 apiece, with a sale price of $2.99.

Other products with mainstream potential (that is to say, they target consumer trends now gaining traction beyond the specialty channel) I spotted at the show:

Suzie's Carrot and Parsnip Fries, and Veggie Fries, both smart attempts to make a favorite side more nutritious

By Bridget Goldschmidt, EnsembleIQ

About Bridget GoldschmidtEnsembleIQIn addition to serving as Progressive Grocer’s Managing Editor, Bridget writes many print and digital features encompassing a range of grocery and fresh categories across the store. Bridget also enjoys on-site reporting assignments at such key industry events as the New York Fancy Food Show and the International Boston Seafood Show, in addition to visiting stores for PG’s prestigious Store of the Month feature. In her years with the magazine, she has developed into a knowledgeable voice on grocery industry trends, sought by such distinguished publications as The New York Times. Follow her at www.twitter.com/BGoldschmidtPG.